1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates, in general, to buckets used on mining and other earthmoving equipment and, more particularly, to buckets having wear-resistant members.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The need for wear-resistant buckets has long been recognized in the earth-moving field. In the art of mining, in particular, the high strength steel plates on the bottom of front shovels wear away in as little as four to five weeks because of the extremely abrasive nature of the materials being worked upon. The "down" time of extremely expensive equipment greatly affects the efficiency of the operation and results in higher prices to the consumer. Additionally, maintenance costs of such equipment is exorbitant.
Many varying approaches have been taken in attempting to solve the problem. Conventional methods include the placement of wear strips of increased thickness and of hard facing on the bottom surface of the buckets, however the weight of the strips places great stress on other operating parts of the equipment and provides, at the most, very little advantage in wear time. More recently, the emphasis has shifted, as typified by U.S. Pat. No. 4,129,952 issued to H. S. Olson, to the inclusion of extremely hard alloy inserts into sockets drilled or formed directly into the earth-contacting surface of the bucket or into wear strips bonded to the bucket. Tungsten carbide, an extremely hard and very wear-resistant material, has been used in some of the more recently designed mining equipment. While being logical in approach, such efforts have largely been unrewarding in that the baseplate or strip, into which the tungsten carbide or other extremely hard material is inserted, continues to wear away rapidly, thereby defeating the purpose and providing only temporary relief of the problem.